If I ruled the world

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

1/27/10, 9:06 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 9:01 PM CET

Jean-Claude Juncker aims for a seat on the G20.

Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s prime minister, has just been reappointed to chair meetings of the eurozone’s finance ministers, the Eurogroup, despite no longer being a finance minister himself. But this is not glory enough. Now Juncker has declared his ambition to win the Eurogroup a seat on the G20.

The G20, which brings together both developed and developing countries, has taken on increased importance during the economic crisis, as a forum for international co-operation on the regulation of banks and other financial services. But it is doing nothing for the EU’s claims to numeracy, since the Union seems to consider that a Group of 20 just means a Group of ‘fewer than 30’.

Germany, the UK, France and Italy are already members of the G20 as of apparently indisputable right, as members of the G8, from which the G20 developed. The European Commission also attends. The country holding the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers participates, and Herman Van Rompuy, the permanent president of the European Council will also be present. The Netherlands and Spain have sneaked onto the guest list at previous summits, with the connivance of Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president.

So the EU’s presence in the ‘G20’ has crept up to seven countries plus Commission plus the European Council. The happy coincidence that Spain holds the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers ought to reduce the EU’s inflated presence by one – at least for six months – but not if Juncker gets his way. Fresh from his reappointment as Eurogroup president, Juncker hailed the official status given to the Eurogroup by the Lisbon treaty and declared that the European Commission would “very soon” make a proposal for the Eurogroup to be formally represented at G20 meetings.

Juncker is clearly determined to ensure that there is no repetition of the G20’s errant behaviour in April 2009 when it backed Luxembourg’s inclusion on a ‘grey’ list of tax havens.

Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for enlargement (of the G20), who is also commissioner-designate for economic and monetary affairs, has confirmed that a proposal will be forthcoming. He forgot to add that the G20’s credibility depended on having one seat for each of the Benelux countries.